Tinseltown, down and dirty again

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Raunch is beating out romance in new comedies, writes Catherine
Elsworth.

Hollywood is rediscovering raunchy adult comedy after years of
shunning the genre for fear of box office failure.

The comeback is being driven by the booming market in DVDs,
especially the soaring demand for "unrated" versions packed with
explicit scenes "too hot" for cinemas.

With DVDs providing more than 60 per cent of studio revenue,
producers are realising that even if raunchy films do not top the
box office, they can earn a fortune in the shops.

The shift comes after a dramatic drop in the number of R-rated
films (over-17s only), which was partly a response to a scathing US
Government report in 2000 that attacked Hollywood for marketing sex
and violence to children. Now a clutch of R-rated northern summer
releases is signalling the return of crude humour, with more
expected if the films prove as popular as test screenings
indicated.

New Line is leading the charge with Wedding Crashers, a
risque caper about two friends who arrive uninvited at strangers'
weddings. It will be followed next month by Deuce Bigalow:
European Gigolo, with Rob Schneider, and The 40-Year-Old
Virgin, starring Steve Carrell.

The trend runs counter to America's public prudishness and the
view that evangelical Christians set the tone for much of its
culture. The new comedies hark back to hits of the 1990s such as
There's Something About Mary and American Pie, in
which the hero simulates sex with an apple pie.

After a Federal Trade Commission report in 2000 accused studios
of marketing adult-oriented material to under-17s, Hollywood's
leading executives were summoned before Congress and production of
R-rated films plummeted.

PG releases now dominate box-office takings and studios
frequently stipulate in directors' contracts that films must not
exclude the under-17 market. Hence rival studios' surprise at the
decision to release Wedding Crashers as an R-rated film.

The comedy, which stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, has been
dubbed a "lad-mag escapade" and features nudity, homophobia and
nymphomania along with such provocative scenes as a sexual act
performed under the table during a formal family dinner. Jane
Seymour, the English actress, is seen topless.

In Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Schneider plays an
American male prostitute in Amsterdam called on by a parade of
female clients as he competes for business with rival
"man-whores".

Audiences at test screenings of Wedding Crashers singled
out the crudest scenes as their favourites.

The three American Pie films have become the best-selling
video title in the history of Universal Studios, largely due to the
sales of "unrated" versions.

Martin Grove, a film columnist for the Hollywood
Reporter, said that with deleted, explicit scenes now such a
selling point, "the pendulum that swung to the PG13 side of the
fence" could be swinging back. He said of Wedding Crashers:
"If it does as well as the buzz suggests, I think we could see a
rebirth of interest in sex-driven R-rated comedies."